I’ll break them down by the year their contracts are up and by priority.
2016
Nate Solder is really the only guy of everyone in their final years that I’d put as a priority. Sealver Siliga and Ryan Allen are two that should probably be retained as well but the rest are basically depth guys who will have to prove something this year.
2017
This is where things get crazy and it would probably be in the Pats’ best interest to lock one or two of these guys up a year early. Here’s my rankings for this group:
- Jamie Collins
- Dont’a Hightower
- Chandler Jones
- Jabaal Sheard
Really I’d want to keep all four of those guys, but the ones who I’d have to unfortunately let walk are, in order of how much it would hurt:
- Rob Ninkovich – he’ll be 33.
- Brandon LaFell – someone will overpay him and he’ll be 30.
- Sebastian Vollmer – could be cut before this I think, but he’ll be 33.
- Matthew Slater – they can probably work something out with him, but he’ll be 30 and how long can you be a special teams demon?
Then there’s the group of guys under 30 who could elevate themselves into priority status from the 2017 group like:
- Logan Ryan
- Malcolm Butler
- Duron Harmon
- Travaris Cadet
- Marcus Cannon
- Aaron Dobson
So as you can see next offseason might be somewhat uneventful, but a huge core dynamic of the team, especially on defense could really shift in 2017. Locking down those top four guys, and I’m assuming that Sheard eventually takes over at LDE for Ninkovich, is a big priority and the sooner they get those guys new contracts the better.
This guy is my biggest priority though:
